I'm participating in the Carving Consortium Winter Post Card Swap. There are 14 carvers creating a winter based image. We'll then print our pieces and mail them to each participant.

I chose to try a woodcut printing block. I've never tried wood cuts and thought it might be interesting. I got a very nice piece of poplar lumber at Lowes and began the process. Wow, this probably isn't the best wood for this but it seemed to be about my only choice. The cedar was way too rough and the oak was even harder than the poplar. I know that Japanese carvers like to use cherry wood and that wood carvers in general like basswood, but poplar is what I could find easily.

The design is a rabbit jumping over a stylized snowflake. After carving the rabbit and the backgrounds I know that the snowflake was a non starter for me in wood. I researched and found a way to carve in wax and then have my wax turned into a polymer plate for printing. I guess this is a lot of how printing is going now a days.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the postcards. Here's some work in progress pictures.

Also I'm in a Year of the Sheep/Ram swap where we send our prints to a central swap host who will bind them together in a book. There are are 25 of us in that swap. I used some of the fancy dancy carving foam which is now on the market. I made a three color seperation set of blocks and then printed them in sequence. This was good practice in registration of colors although I chose a pretty easy way of doing it. Next time I'll get more challenging ideas. I can hardly wait to see the results of these two swaps. I'm so new at this I don't know if my stuff is total garbage or at least acceptable.

Sketches

Urban Sketcher

A book is a part of life, a manifestation of life, just as much as a tree or a horse or a star. It obeys its own rhythms, its own laws, whether it be a novel, a play, or a diary. The deep, hidden rhythm of life is always there—that of the pulse, the heart beat.